The Little Mermaid: 30 Things You Missed In The Disney Classic

One of the most beloved Disney classics of all time, The Little Mermaid, is officially 30 years old this weekend.

Since its release in 1989, the film has been celebrated for its unique style, its ear-worm tunes like Under The Sea and Part Of Your World and, of course, for its iconic characters like Ursula, Sebastian and our heroine, Ariel.

But even if you’ve seen it a million times (or, like us, a million and one), there’s still something new to notice every time. Here are 30 things you may not have known about the much-loved film…

1. We know it as a classic now, but expectations for The Little Mermaid were actually pretty low before its release

That’s because it came at the end of a bit of a slump for Disney, although things began looking up following the release of Oliver Company in 1988. There were also early concerns from former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg that The Little Mermaid being *deep sigh* “a girls’ film” might hinder its success.

It went on to spark what became known as the “Disney Renaissance” in the early 1990s, during which films like Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King were also released.

2. In fact, Disney had been planning an adaptation of The Little Mermaid since the 1930s

Shortly after Snow White’s release, Walt Disney revealed his intention to make a Treehouse Of Horror-esque anthology film split into three parts, each one based one of Hans Cristian Andersson’s classic children’s stories. The project ended up being shelved for a variety of reasons, including an animators strike and the studio’s shift of emphasis to World War II propaganda films.